Replying to Google reviews: method and templates

A review on your Google profile is read long after it was written, and your reply along with it. It speaks to its author, and above all to the people still hesitating to call you. For Google, replying shows that you take what your customers say into account. In the United States, 89% of consumers expect a business to reply to reviews (BrightLocal, 2026).

Here is how to go about it, how often, and what to write, including when the review seems unfair to you.

Replying from the profile, in practice

Your Business Profile must be verified first. Then:

1. Open your profile, signed in to the Google account that manages it.
2. Choose Read reviews.
3. Select Reply next to the review, write, then submit.

The reply appears under the review, in the business’s name, after a review by Google: usually ten minutes, sometimes up to thirty days. It can still be edited. To miss nothing, turn on customer activity in the profile’s notifications: Google tells you about every new review.

How fast

Expectations are rising fast. In the BrightLocal 2026 survey of 1,002 American consumers, 19% expect a reply the same day (against 6% a year earlier), 32% by the next day at the latest, and 81% within the week. It is an American study: take it as an order of magnitude.

The simplest approach is a fixed slot: five minutes every morning for a restaurant, twice a week for a practice or a tradesperson. Aim for 48 hours at most.

Reply to every review, good and bad. Again according to BrightLocal, 80% of American consumers say they would choose a business that replies to all its reviews; that falls to 45% when it replies only to the good ones, and to 47% when it replies only to the bad ones.

Good reviews: a thank-you that rings true

Google gives a few simple guidelines: be brief, friendly and personal, and leave the sales pitch aside. One-size-fits-all replies are costly: half of the American consumers surveyed by BrightLocal say they put them off choosing the business.

Pick up a detail from the review, and sign with your first name. For example:

“Thank you, Claire! So glad you enjoyed the pear tart: it’s my grandmother’s recipe. See you soon, Julien.”

“Thank you for your trust, Mr. Garnier. Glad the bathroom was ready before the holidays, as planned. Karim, from the workshop.”

Negative reviews: reply for the next reader

Public criticism calls for a public reply, short and calm: whoever reads it in three months will judge your tone more than the substance of the dispute.

Google advises acknowledging a mistake when there is one, apologizing if warranted, explaining what you can or can’t do, and offering to continue the conversation directly. It also asks you never to reveal private information about the author, and never to attack them. In practice, four steps:

1. Thank them, or acknowledge the message.
2. Acknowledge what is true.
3. Say what is changing, or explain in one sentence.
4. Offer direct contact, and sign.

“Hello Marc, you’re right: on Saturday evening the wait between courses was too long, and we should have warned you. We have added staff in the kitchen on weekends. If you’d like to talk about it, call the restaurant and ask for Sophie.”

If the review makes you angry, wait an hour before writing. What is published stays.

In a health practice, caution is twofold. The guide of the French Order of Midwives, drawn from that of the Order of Physicians, reminds practitioners that medical confidentiality also applies online: the course of a consultation cannot be mentioned, even when the review is signed with a pseudonym, because its author can be recognized. Thank them, say you cannot reply in detail here, and offer to talk about it at the practice:

“Thank you for taking the time to write, and we are sorry you felt this way. Professional confidentiality prevents us from saying more here: call the practice, and we will gladly talk about it.”

Facing an unfair or fake review

A customer you can’t find, a day you were closed, a competitor under a pseudonym: the review looks fake to you. Two steps, in this order.

Reply, plainly. State the facts, without accusing:

“Hello, we can find no record of your visit, and the salon is closed on Mondays. If there was a misunderstanding, please call us: we want to understand.”

Report it, if the review breaks the rules. Google removes spam, off-topic content, harassment, and reviews born of a conflict of interest, such as those from a former employee or a competitor. It does not remove a review just because you dispute it. From the profile, choose Read reviews, then Report next to the review, and give the reason. The review usually takes several days. Google’s review management tool shows its status, and lets you appeal once if the review stays up.

Review blackmail. A sudden wave of one- or two-star reviews, then a message, often on WhatsApp or Telegram, demanding money to make them disappear: Google handles these scams separately. It asks you not to reply to their authors and not to pay them anything, because paying does not guarantee removal and invites more attempts. Take dated screenshots of the messages, note the links to the reviews, and fill in Google’s form dedicated to this extortion.

Asking for reviews, yes; buying them, never

Asking is allowed. Google provides a link and a QR code to give to customers. A QR code near the till, the link at the bottom of an invoice, a sentence at the end of an appointment are enough. Health professions have their own rules: the guide of the French Order of Midwives, for example, points out that encouraging patients to post reviews is not allowed. Check with your professional body.

What Google forbids:

• offering anything in exchange for a review (a discount, a coffee, a free product), or in exchange for changing or removing a negative review;
• asking only happy customers, or discouraging negative reviews;
• having reviews written by employees, former employees, relatives, or from several accounts;
• posting reviews on a competitor’s profile to harm them.

These reviews are removed, and the accounts involved can be suspended.

What French law punishes. According to the DGCCRF, the French consumer protection authority, posing as a customer, posting or having others post fake reviews, or editing real reviews to show yourself in a better light counts as a misleading commercial practice: up to two years in prison and a €300,000 fine, an amount that can be raised to 10% of average annual turnover. The individuals recruited to write these reviews also incur criminal liability.

Checks do happen. Since September 2023, the DGCCRF has used a tool, Polygraphe, that spots suspicious reviews. In 2024, nearly a third of the 397 businesses it checked on their reviews had irregularities, and one company was fined €80,000 (DGCCRF, 2024 report).

If you display reviews on your own site, the law also requires you to state whether and how you check that they come from real customers. See showing reviews on your site.

In short: reply to every review, quickly, with a detail and your first name. Faced with criticism, acknowledge, explain, offer to talk. Report what breaks the rules, never pay a blackmailer, and offer nothing in exchange for a review.